


you never held me at the right angle

by thatsouthernanthem



Series: hold on, hold on [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Babies, F/M, Gen, Regret, angsty, but i was obligated to write, but they always get back up again, strong women falter sometimes, this is the imperial au no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 21:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5840854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsouthernanthem/pseuds/thatsouthernanthem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Padme Amidala knows she should run, but she's afraid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you never held me at the right angle

She's wrong. 

Democracy doesn't die with thunderous applause. That's how it starts, but in the end, it's over with the snap-hiss of a lightsaber and an order that leaves hundreds of Jedi dead, and others on the run. 

Coruscant is on fire. And she can see it all from the wide picture window in the Jedi Temple--the former Jedi Temple. Palpatine had declared it the seat of the Empire just days before, and then immediately ordered it restored and renovated. 

And her husband...her husband is the Emperor's faithful servant. Darth Vader is what Anakin is known as now, to the public. He is the right hand of justice for Palpatine, and it is a justice that sits wrong and tastes sour in her mouth. 

She wonders if Obi-Wan is okay...where Ahsoka is now. If any others made it off planet before the clones were ordered to gun down their former generals. She wonders if any of the clones felt any remorse for this...or if they were just as programmed as everyone thought they were. 

Just as programmed as she's realizing Anakin is. 

She should leave. She should run away because this is not her idea of a life. She hates the title the Emperor gave her. Palpatine, once a friend...once a servant to his Queen...now ruling over her, her gravel-like voice scraping over her as he calls her 'Lady Vader.' She hates it. She hates this room, hates this place and she can't understand why she's still here. 

And then, she remembers. A soft cry comes from another room in the penthouse she's been put in. A cry answers that one, and she lurches into motion, automatically. 

The twins. That's why she's still here. The Emperor wouldn't let her leave with them. He'd probably rather let them die before Padme would be able to run away with them. And that is why she stays. 

Her fingers ghost over the soft tuft of hair on her son's head, over the dark curls on her daughter's. They quiet, consoled by their mother's presence. Her hand shakes. 

Anakin said he did this for her -- that he had a vision of her dying and he wouldn't let that happen. The idea of him doing this...betraying everyone he knows and loves, to save one person...this is why the Jedi aren't allowed relationships, she realizes. It makes her heart stop, her chest seize. She never wanted this. She only wanted him and their children. 

What she received was so much more...and so much worse. Her hand clenched into a fist. This wouldn't do. She wasn't some simpering woman who would lay down and be defeated. As long as she was here, as long as she was alive, she would do everything in her power to keep her children safe. To keep them out of Palpatine's clutches. 

She'd try to save Anakin along the way, if she could, but she was worried he was already too far under Palpatine's thumb. If anything can save him, Padme muses as she stares down at Luke and Leia's tiny fingers, it may be their children. 

Straightening her spine, Padme turns to face the sound of the penthouse doors opening. Time to face the music, hold her head high, and keep going. 

She could do this. 

She had to. 

For Luke. For Leia. For Naboo, Bail and all of her friends. 

Because that's what Padme did. Survived.


End file.
